I was looking around tonight on Wikipedia and stumbled on this painting and thought of our class. I'm not sure of the significance, but it made me think.As I mentioned in class, the Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday has been on my mind as of late. I was reading up on it the other day and found something I had never thought of: it is complete "luck" that Earth's size, the moon's size, and the distance between the two line up so that our shadow can perfectly cover the moon during a Lunar Eclipse.
Luck?
Anyway, this painting from the 13th century and is said to reflect Proverbs 8.27 in which Wisdom speaks of creation:
"When he established the heavens I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the deep. . ."
From what I've read, for mathematicians in the Middle Ages, geometry was a divine activity. We understand our universe through numbers and measurements; why wouldn't our Creator have taken the same things into account?
3 comments:
Math and God may have possibilities. Have you ever read about the Golden Ratio or Rectangle? It shows up everywhere: the human body, pine cones, flowers, shells, etc. Here's a link about it:
http://www.jimloy.com/geometry/golden.htm
Jess, the Golden Ratio page just hurt my head, but I like the connection that is forming here. Ryan, that's a really cool painting.
Also, my roommate Cait is in Prof. Goddu's Science and Belief class and she knows a lot about astronomy, physics, and math. I'm going to see what I can dig up from her notes.
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